Creating things you never thought you’d need and then selling them to you at prices you never thought you’d pay? You’ve got to hand it to Apple.

Product prices begin at £299 for the entry-level ‘Sport’ watch and rise to the mid-tiered £479 version – with a choice of case materials, a variety of straps and potentially thousands of software-derived dial configurations it can rise to double that.

But it’s their gilded Watch Editions range that’s causing all the kerfuffle across the media. Can the world’s most ‘democratic’ brand suddenly go high end? With eight models that start at £8,000 for the rose gold version and reach £13,500 for the yellow gold, these pimped up mini-mini iPads are aimed unswervingly at the uber wealthy and those that need to keep up with the Kardashian-Joneses.

Since the launch of these new wrist-bound fingertip tablets, Apple’s shares have gone nuts. You can’t help but admire a brand so confident, its advice to owners of a soon-to-be outmoded £13,500 watch will be the same as it is to owners of an outmoded £600 iPhone: suck it up and go buy a new one.

Featured: 42mm 18-Carat Gold Apple Watch Edition, with Midnight Blue Classic Buckle – £12,000 (or £13,500 with AppleCare+ insurance)